Kate Middleton’s timely confirmation raises questions
Kate Middleton’s recent confirmation to the Anglican Church has raised questions and doubts about the reason why she did it.
Middleton, who will marry Prince William on April 29, was baptized into the Church of England–but she had never undergone confirmation rites until just prior to her wedding, Alexander Chancellor wrote in The Guardian.
Furthermore, Chancellor noted in The Guardian, “[N]either [Kate Middleton] nor other members of her family appear until now to have been regular churchgoers.”
Middleton was confirmed by Bishop of London Richard Chartres, in private rites that were held in St. James Palace last March 10, according to The Telegraph. Also present were Middleton’s family and Prince William, Reuters reported. Chartres will also deliver the address during the wedding ceremony.
Chartres confirmed William in March 1997 at Windsor Castle when the heir to the throne was 14 years old. At the time, this was a departure from tradition as such royal services were usually done by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Reuters said.
The timing of Middleton’s confirmation raises speculation that the 29-year-old bride-to-be only did it because of her pending wedding. Chancellor wrote in The Guardian that if Middleton were truly serious about the Church of England she would have been confirmed much earlier.
Chancellor wrote in The Guardian that Middleton attended private boarding schools such as Downe House and the posh Marlborough College, where she would likely have been given the chance to receive confirmation rites when she was still in her teens.
Sources close to Middleton told The Daily Mail that the future bride was confirmed as a result of a “personal journey,” Chancellor wrote in The Guardian. However, he also muses on the fact that without the confirmation Middleton would not have been able to receive Holy Communion during the wedding ceremony.
Furthermore, in marrying Prince William she also becomes the wife of the “future Defender of the Faith,” Chancellor wrote in The Guardian, which raises suspicion that “she did it more for convenience than from conviction.”
Not so
Others however say that it is not so. Rowan Pelling wrote in The Telegraph that she can understand why Middleton might sincerely choose to be confirmed just before her wedding, as that was her own personal experience as well.
Pelling explains in her opinion piece in The Telegraph that in her personal case, it was the desire to have a church wedding that made her think it would be hypocritical on her part to do so without being personally committed to the church.
Pelling wrote in The Telegraph, “Like Kate, I was baptized into the Church of England while I was a baby, but, although my family attended church throughout my childhood, my mother believed confirmation was a decision for the individual.”
Pelling added that in her school there was “no real pressure to join the fold.” This, she says looking back, was a better approach as “it suffers the big children, as well as the little ones, to come unto it,” she wrote in The Telegraph.
Pelling wrote in The Telegraph, “Kate may have had some of the same conversations and wobbles of conscience that troubled me 16 years ago: that solemn vows have little weight unless you trouble yourself to consider the splendid solemnity of the forces that underpin them. It seems to me that one part of becoming an adult is to take responsibility for your faith, or, indeed, your lack of it.”
In the 16th century, King Henry VIII broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself supreme head of The Church of England. Currently, Queen Elizabeth II holds this title, which will be passed on to William when he becomes king, Reuters reported.